


Battlefields

by Ellepige



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Feels?, M/M, Past Abuse (hinted), Past Drug Use, Short, Tattoos, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 06:21:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10076945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellepige/pseuds/Ellepige
Summary: They wore their past on their skin.





	

They wore their past on their skin.  
It wasn't a witty figure of speech, no euphemism.  
Light filtered through the nicotine-stained blinds, dust danced in the bright rays of sun that kissed their skin. It caught on the edges of scars that marred Reyes's torso and legs, wounds from gunshots, from knives, one particularily ugly burn that covered the left side of his abdomen. Jesse knew it had been caused by the hot muzzle of a Bastion unit. He didn't want to imagine how it must have hurt. Without even thinking he reached out, placed his hand on the pale scar tissue and sighed. He felt how uneven it was, even now, with the Omnic War over for a decade.  
Jesse had been a child back then. He felt stupidly guilty for not being there. Not being able to help.  
It was still early and they had been up until dawn. He needed to try and get some sleep, but right now, the gunslinger couldn't snap himself out of his reverie, of the appraisal of both their pasts, written in ink and scars and blemishes. There was so much more to see. And he had an eye for detail, or so they said.

One of the first things he noticed when it came to hints about Gabriel's past had been the ruined flesh in the crook of his arm. When the man moved his hand or when he tensed, one could see the damaged tissue there, white and ugly under the soft-looking skin. At first, Jesse had attributed it to a former drug habit, for he knew injuries like that. The veins got thick and inelastic over time, until the fixer had to find another place to inject. That it wasn't like this, that it was a relic of the Soldier Enhancement Program was something he learned about during his second year in Blackwatch.  
Back then he also learned what the experiments made of Reyes. The soldier was monstrous in battle, an unrelenting force that made him giddy for some reason. The sheer, casual display of strength, Gabriel's well-cultivated aura of invincibility. It was small comfort that the other agents seemed to fall for this act as much as McCree did.

A broad, dark hand came up to interlace its fingers with that of Jesse. It was a comforting touch, warm and reassuring, despite the callouses and the too dry skin. Jesse huffed, the spaces between his fingers a little too sensitive. Yeah, well. Drug habits.  
Some of his own scars served as reminders of his childhood. Today, it didn't faze him as much as it used to. He told himself that other childern grazed their knees as well. What difference made some cigarette burns or the almost invisible dots of puncture wounds between his fingers?  
He had some between his toes as well. He hadn't known, it was Gabe who found out about them on one of their rare, lazy sunday mornings. The man had been sitting on the edge of the bed they shared the night before. Up to this day he remembered the gentle touch against his ankle. The look in those dark eyes as Reyes had lifted the leg, had pressed a short kiss against the top of his foot.  
The mortification he felt. Jesse was not able to explain why, but this simple touch felt too intimate. So strange.  
Reyes had just murmured something akin to 'didn't know it was that bad' and went to take a shower, leaving Jesse to sit in the bed, tangled in sheets that smelled of sex and cigarettes. As soon as the door clicked shut, he had sat up to see what was wrong, finding the little blemishes. He didn't wonder where they were from, he knew there were days he didn't remember in detail. He was determined on leaving them at that, but it still made him feel uncomfortable.

Deadlock was still part of him, undeniably so. The black ink that decorated his back was a stigma he couldn't get rid of. Or well, maybe he could've, but he didn't want to.  
Reyes wore his own decor, bold, ugly pictures of skulls and crosses and semper fi, the color fading, some images ripped apart by newer cuts. Jesse thought it was fitting that they both still carried a memento like this around.  
It helped with their cover, sometimes. The disillusioned former soldier. The ruthless gang member. Roles they put on one day or another, carefully switching between them depending on the demand. Silently, he wondered if they fit them better than their true roles did.  
McCree shifted, pressed open-mouthed kisses against the two-dimensional temple of a black-and-white skull on Reyes's shoulder. He felt the bulk of the other man stir, he knew Gabriel was awake and just not putting an end to Jesses soft little caresses because he enjoyed them.

With bodies that were battlefields, both of them needed every bit of peace they could get.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again!  
> Once more, it's nothing but a short piece of fiction, inspired by a documentary about the U.S. military and the use of body art to communicate (which, to some extend, seems similar to how gangs use tattoos). With Reyes being an Omnic War veteran, it seemed plausible that he has some tattoos as well.  
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
